Award-winning artist, performer, musician, and filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to Outfest this month with his deeply personal feature North By Current, following its world premiere at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, where it was nominated for both Best Documentary and a Teddy Award. The raw, unflinching portrait of his Mormon family reeling from tragedy... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: wrestler Mack Beggs “trans athletes have always been here, just like trans individuals”
Gifted wrestler Mack Beggs is one of the subjects of Michael Barnett’s compelling feature documentary about transgender teen athletes Changing the Game, which launches on Hulu on Tuesday June 1st 2021. Mack was Texas state champion twice while at high school, where he was forced to play in the female tournaments as depicted in the... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Changing The Game ★★★★★
Emmy-winner Michael Barnett's compelling feature documentary about transgender teen athletes Changing the Game, which launches on Hulu on Tuesday June 1st 2021, had its world premiere at Tribeca back in 2019, going on to be a hit at LGBTQ+ festivals across the US and internationally, winning audience awards at both Frameline and Outfest. The film... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: kiki ball legend Christopher “Afrika” Quarles on their debut movie role as Mother McQueen in Port Authority “who you see on screen is me”
Writer-director Danielle Lessovitz's Port Authority made history at Cannes in 2019, when it world premiered in the Un Certain Regard section, becoming the first film competing at the festival to feature a trans woman of colour—Leyna Bloom—in a lead role. Meanwhile some of the movie's cast, including Christopher "Afrika" Quarles, memorably turned the festival's red... Continue Reading →
TV Review: Pride ★★★★★
Taking viewers on a journey through LGBTQ+ history, politics, and everyday life in the USA from the 1950s up until the present day, the ambitious six-episode docuseries Pride, which premiered on FX on Friday night and has begun streaming on Hulu, builds into something powerful, stirring, and monumental. Each episode is helmed by a different... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: “I wanted to break as many rules as possible” Isabel Sandoval on her early films Señorita & Apparition now playing on Criterion Channel
Filipina filmmaker and actress Isabel Sandoval caught the attention of international critics when her stunning third feature film—which she wrote, directed, produced, edited, and starred in—Lingua Franca premiered at Venice in 2019, making her the first publicly identifying trans woman of colour to screen work in competition at the festival. The acclaimed film, which immerses... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Together Together ★★★★
Writer-director Nikole Beckwith's Together Together, which world premiered at Sundance where it was in the running for the festival's Grand Jury Prize, refreshes the rom-com genre by placing a mellow and touching odd couple platonic friendship at its centre (a plat-com). As the film opens we meet twenty-something Anna (Patti Harrison), a coffee shop barista... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: HBO Max’s Genera+ion star Nava Mau “it’s important for queer & trans people to see that we are lovable & we have a lot of wisdom to offer”
Currently starring in HBO Max's LGBTQ+ darkly comic drama series Genera+ion, created by Daniel and Zelda Barnz, Nava Mau is a mixed-race trans Latina filmmaker, actress, and cultural worker. She wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the compelling and moving short film Waking Hour, that premiered at LA's Outfest Fusion in 2019 before playing at... Continue Reading →
BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: AIDS DIVA The Legend of Connie Norman ★★★1/2
With an overview of the ACT UP story having been told in compelling and detailed documentaries such as Jim Hubbard's United in Anger: A History of ACT UP and David France's How to Survive a Plague, it's pleasing to now see significant members being focused on individually, such as trans trailblazer Connie Norman, a broadcaster,... Continue Reading →
Athena Film Festival 2021 Review: Julia Scotti Funny That Way ★★★1/2
Golden Globe nominated screenwriter and playwright Susan Sandler makes her feature documentary directorial debut with Julia Scotti: Funny That Way—available to watch online until March 21st as part of this year's virtual Athena Film Festival at Barnard College—a tender and heartwarming portrait of the charismatic trans comedian. If you watch America's Got Talent you'll likely... Continue Reading →